Week of October 31

Read on to find out some of what your students learned in music during the past week...

This week, Kindergarteners in Ms. Waller's class sang several Halloween songs.  They played a game with one of the songs and acted out another one.  Students in Ms. Tepper's classes enjoyed watching a movie about children discovering songs from all around the world.

First graders were introduced to Elvis Presley through a book called Ten Little Elvi.  They learned about rock and roll rhythms and played many of these rhythms on hand drums, egg shakers, and rhythm sticks to form their own mini rock and roll bands.

Second graders sight-read rhythmic and melodic patterns from Howard Hanson's "Children's Dance" from Merry Mount.  They discovered that even after learning these patterns really well, it was still quite difficult to hear the patterns in the song.  They also rhythmically dictated the names of all of the games they could find hidden in Pieter Brueghel's painting called "Children's Games."  They will do an activity with these rhythmic patterns next week.

Third graders were able to determine the time signature of a song called "My Horses Ain't Hungry" by just listening to the song briefly.  They discovered that although there should be three beats in each measure, the first measure only has one beat.  This is because it has a pickup beat, meaning that the beat is an unaccented beat that leads into the first full measure of music.  The third graders played a harmony part for this song on Orff instruments to help them feel the dotted half note, which gets three beats of sound.

Fourth graders were very excited to begin their recorder unit this week!  So far, all classes have learned to play "B" and "A," and two classes have learned "G."  They should be practicing these three notes with their recorders at home.  If the instruments are squeaking, the most common problems are that they are either blowing too hard, or they are not covering the holes completely.

Fifth graders took their note name quiz this week.  Two of the classes also began the recorder unit.  Students should be practicing their instruments at home.  They can practice the fingerings without the mouthpieces on the instruments, but they should play them with the mouthpieces on at times to ensure that they are blowing the appropriate amount of air and that they are covering the holes completely.

 

John Philip Sousa, the "March King," was born on November 6, 1854.  Celebrate his birthday by listening to (and marching to) one of his famous marches like "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (the National March of the United States) or "Semper Fidelis" (the Official March of the United States Marine Corps).  Learn more about John Philip Sousa and his music by listening to a podcast (for kids) found here:  http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showview.asp?ID=22